When the fan asked if Peter would ever acknowledge Caitlin or express any grief over what seems to be her dire fate, Kring replied, "No, we passed it. We leapfrogged it." He added that when the idea of returning to Caitlin was brought up, they asked, "Really? Are we going to risk that? We have enough stuff to [deal with]."

So... yeah. The Irish girl Peter fell in love with? We're not going to see her anymore. Because there's too much stuff going on. Because the audience is so much more interested in the whole world-blowing-up thing than in all of the wonderful, sympathetic characters. And because there is no way Peter - the most empathic person on the cast - who just lost this woman he loved in a crapsack future, what, A COUPLE OF WEEKS ago on the show's timeline, is going to be interested in bending Heaven and Earth to save her?

Kring, I defended your comments that DVR was killing the serialized drama because - unlike all the people at Ain't It Cool News or Topless Robot who quoted you in part and spun it around that you hated the show's fanbase - I got it. I got your point.

Your point was that TV Shows are ratings dependent and that it's very hard to keep a fanbase coming back, week after week like in Ye Olden Times, when there are people who record the shows to watch later in a block, watch them on-line (as I did this morning) or download them from bittorent sites all around the world, so they don't have to wait 3 weeks for the BBC to broadcast it. I get that. And since the only thing that gets monitored is the Nielsen system which only monitors who is watching a show as it is broadcast live, odds are the system ISN'T recording the numbers of your audience accurately.

That being said - there IS no defense for calling the only people who are apparently convincing the network that anybody is watching the show and thus keeping you employed "...saps and the dip****s who can't figure out how to watch it in a superior way."

Still, you did apologize for the way you put that earlier. And because this last episode honestly does seem to be turning things around for a lot of the characters, I'm going to give it one more chance with next week's episode.

I would give you one piece of advice, though. Based on one of your comments, it seems that you realized - on some level - that the show lost its' way a while ago.

"I was primarily fascinated by the origin story. Once the original story is over, and the character has no more questions about what's happening or existential drama, then the questions become just about plot, and then it becomes harder for me personally to connect to."

So go back to the original idea for Season Two. Get a whole NEW cast of people who aren't sure what is going on as they manifest powers and throw them into a crisis as they rise to the occasion. Anything to end this endless stream of the same six people becoming more and more powerful and more and more hokey, soap-opera twists being mined to death.

My interest is waning and I heard about a Tim Kring interview that may piss me off into never watching the show again. But we'll save that news until after the blogging... just in case.

7:58 PM - Oh great... the skipping thing is happening again. Worse than before. Blogging On-Hold Until I Can Get an episode download on-line.

8:48 AM - Letting my conditioner soak a bit. I see that the episode is finally up on NBC.com. Let's do this.

8:53 - Okay. Arthur has Precognitive Drawing now (second-hand from Peter or from Mr. African Issac?) and we get a few images here.

Two men falling over a jungle (Nathan and Peter?)

A man holding a gun kissing a blonde woman in a cell (Sylar and Elle?)

A man talking to two other men (Hiro and Ando are the men on the right, but who is the one on the left?)

A man holding a young woman, who is bleeding profusely (Bennet holding Claire?)

An eclipse

I'll admit that some of this is obvious given the commercials from last week... or the episode last week ... but hey, let's see how it plays out.

8:58 - Am I the only one creeped out by Sylar's dad saying "it's a good pairing"? Like he's already thinking about their super freak babies for forming "ze Mastur race"!

8:59 - Wow, the Company base is just SWARMING with activity now when it was completely empty last episode. And Claire asks the question that everybody has already asked "Why is it always me?"

9:02 - Okay. So Matt is going off looking for Hiro, Nathan and Peter are going after the Haitian and Claire is going to partner up with Bennet. Where is Daphne, though? With Matt, probably since he can't get around too fast.

9:03 - Baron Samdei? Haitian villain naming himself after the voodoo god of death? Into drugs and slavery. I totally had that guy as the main villain of my last superhero RPG! Okay, I called him Papa Loa, but still... you owe me a check, Kring!

9:05 - Just what I wanted. More of Mohinderance being a whiny bitchface. Oh, you need the catalyst. Maybe you should have thought of that before you injected yourself with an untested serum!

9:08 - Oh hell - so the Eclipse DOES change the powers thing up. Somehow. Ick. Still, did anybody else just cheer when Mohinderance said "I'm going to die?"

9:12 - Matt describes Hiro as a walking do-over. I'm guessing he got this from Angela's files because there's no other way Matt should know that. And Daphne is being all whiny about being a betrayer and a liar and going all psycho girlfriend, Bella from Twilight "I'm so worthless I don't know why you put up with me" - yeah, I'm sure this is REALLY helping calm the nerves of all the people afraid of this show becoming less of a WiR fest and more of a Faux Action Heroine show. As it is, Claire (and to a lesser extent Angela) are the only dynamic female characters.

9:18 - Wow. Claire being uncharacteristically bitchy to her dad. Look, NOBODY buys that she's upset about him being a semi-amoral hunter of super-powered folk - okay?!

9:21 - And yeah - crazy girlfriend act again. And she's off. Also, you'd think Matt would know that openly reading someone's mind is NOT a good way to establish trust. Then again, he is kinda overwhelmed, over his head and... well... being Matt Parkman.

9:24 - Oh hell... NOW they decide to start having Elle act like herself, stirring up shit just for the hell of it and challenging authority? Well, anything to kill a few acts, right?

9:26 - On the other hand, if it brings Sylar back to being the psycho-bad guy he SHOULD be... go Elle!

9:33 - Okay. Time out. When did Nathan tell Tracy his plans? When did she get all the way across the country back to the Company base in New York when she was in California with the rest of Arthur's team in the last episode? For that matter, HOW did she get back across the country that quickly? And why would she be stupid enough to take a phone call from Arthur INSIDE THE COMPANY BASE if she's honestly being a double agent?

Oh right. Because the plot demands it.

*sighs* At least Angela is back on form and already knows something is up.

9:38 - Okay, so that drawing WAS Matt talking to Hiro and Ando. And the Eclipse is starting, it seems.

9:39 - And just so we get it, because apparently people have been complaining about the future paintings not being obvious enough... we get to see each of Arthur's drawings with the people it is meant to show.

* Peter and Nathan take a fall.
* Matt, Ando and Hiro are trapped in Kansas.
* Elle and Sylar are back to being their insane selfish selves
* Mohinderance has put himself into a cocoon (Dammit! This means he isn't going to die, doesn't it?)
* And Claire and Bennet are bonding through violence - which apparently won't end well.

Should I even bother pointing out that Claire dying and everyone losing their powers totally negates the alternate future we've seen for this season? Just checking.

9:46 - "The first day you flew, wasn't there an eclipse?" Umm... no, Peter. The first day he flew was six months BEFORE that. You should know - that was the first time you had a prophetic dream.

Wait - didn't a LOT of the characters start manifesting powers before the Eclipse? Claire ran into the burning train car before it. Peter was hovering a little around Nathan. Niki was smashing people with her super-strength as Jessica before that. And Isaac was painting the future WAY before that. Not to mention all the countless Company agents and elders who have been using their powers consistently for the last 30-40 some odd years with no adverse effects.

And come to think of it - wouldn't there have been a partial/total eclipse of the sun SOMETIME within that 30-40 year span? If Eclipses had an on/off effect on superpowers, wouldn't Arthur and Angela know about it? Wouldn't they think to mention this to all the people they are sending into the field? Or maybe even say "You know what kids - we're going to take a break for a few weeks." Hell, that'd even be the perfect way to do the mid-season break that is coming up and then start again in January with the new status quo.

So either The Eclipse causing powers is total bullshit or they are freely ignoring continuity at this point. Hell, it could be both at this point.

Nice thing about watching this on-line. I can take the time to ramble about this in-depth. Ah well. Back to the show.

9:55 - Hmmm. Peter's become quite the expert on Haitian culture.

9:56 - "Why are you turning your head sideways?" - BWAHAHAHAHA!

9:59 - Wow. The Petrelli boys actually fighting like brothers. Haven't seen the two of them acting like this in a while again either. I kinda like it.

10:01 - And at last - the truth - and it's suddenly plausable. Claire isn't really mad that her dad is an amoral killer. She's mad because he was always leaving her and what kicked off was him leaving her this season when she really needed her dad who knows everything to explain everything. I can swing with that.

10:03 - Okay. I thought Matt finding out he didn't have powers was funny. But I LOVE Sylar's look of perplexed confusion as Bennet goes to town on him. And Claire is wounded, yes, but this is hardly serious. Shoulder wound isn't that bad as long as it gets treated.

10:08 - And yeah... Bennet being smart and the writers actually explaining WHY he doesn't take her to the hospital. Cause cops ask questions and "what do we say once her powers do come back?"

Huh. So certain he is. Bad Yoda impression I do, hummm?

10:10 - I just realized this is one long-ass eclipse. And Matt is determined to save Daphne. Ummm... save her from what, again? Her dad/granddad whoever that guy was didn't exactly seem like a huge threat.

10:13 - And... Mohinderance is back to normal. Not dead. Dammit! And he's going to find Maya. Double Dammit! Thankfully, before I completely get pissed off, Arthur and Flint come in and make it clear that Mohinderance ain't going nowhere, no-how.

10:16 - New Comic Book Day! :D Hee hee.

10:17 - Yes, the minds behind Robot Chicken in a quick cameo as two guys running a comic shop in Kansas. And if you had any doubt as to the Jeph Loeb influence still dominating the scripts - "We have plenty of Red Hulk for everyone."

Oh, Jeph. I loved your Batman work but no... you just crossed the line into Bert I. Gordon territory.

10:18 - I just realized - they are literally pulling the Mel Brooks hero "Let me see the script!" gag. For real. And in seriousness. Well, serious as Hiro and Ando ever get, anyway.

10:19 - "All of our questions will be answered." And if you believe that, I have a well-lit, well-stocked comic shop in Kansas I'd like to sell you.

10:32 - Slight break to wash conditioner out of hair and fix lunch.

10:33 - Slight pause again as I go check HeroesWiki to confirm that yes, nothing was said about The Haitian having a brother before in any of the webcomic stories based around him. Of course there is nothing to suggest he couldn't have a brother, save that the story suggests his family consists of The Haitian and his father.

Okay. I'm going to stop pausing to do research now. Really.

10:36 - Ah. How Shakespearean. Two pairs of two brothers in conflict.

10:38 - And wow... stubtle - well - subtle as this show ever gets - symbolism. Bennet has his glasses off to be the caring father. Puts them back on and you can see his expression steeling. Like he's putting on a mask...

10:39 - I'd expect Sandra to be a little less passive about this. Still, Bennet knows he has his chance to end Sylar (and maybe Elle) once and for all. So he's taking it. Good for him. Because it would be so poetic - once Sylar finally does die - for him to be brought down by a person with no powers.

10:44 - Wow. I admit - I did not see that coming. Without her power, the Speedster can't even walk. Lucky she was "home" when that happened. But wait, if that's what she was before... does that mean her power is artificial and The Company gave it to her?

10:46 - And Claire is bleeding out again?

10:47 - Okay. I first saw Sylar screaming while bent over a counter and I have to admit, I thought for a moment "Man! Bennet does take his revenge seriously." I know. I am a bad bad man.

10:48 - And YES! Confirmation that even without The Hunger, Sylar is a bad, bad man.

10:49 - Okay. Bennet? Don't miss. Seriously.

The Final Verdict - If you had any doubts that they are, in fact, making this all up as they go along, doubt no more. Still, it seems like the show is starting to get back on-track with most of the artificial character drama from this year having been dispelled and most of the characters sounding like themselves again.

If nothing else, I'll tune in next week to see how Sylar's impending death (please, please please) gets resolved.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

AMBUSH BUG: YEAR NONE #4 - Ambush Bug kills Dan Didio just after Dan takes responsibility for everything going wrong at DC Comics. What more do you need to know?

CONAN THE CIMMERIAN #5 - More flashbacks to the days of Conan's grandfather but at least this time there's a lot of good action in the past AND present. The last few pages don't speak well of Conan's homecoming... but do speak well of an interesting issue #6.

DOCTOR WHO: THE FORGOTTEN #3 - Pia Guerra goes off art duties and the art and the art goes into the toilet. The 10th Doctor looks like an anorexic Elvis impersonator, Martha looks nothing like the character from the show. Even Tom Baker is unrecognizable except by virtue of his hat and scarf. Even then, the scarf is FAR too short. A pity, because this series was enjoyable enough, even if it IS a Martha-Era 10th Doctor story. At least Tony Lee's story still holds up and the characters sound like themselves even if they don't look like themselves.

EX MACHINA #39 - Should I feel the least bit ashamed that I was rooting for fighting liberal "Trouble" here and was hoping she'd humiliate the Republicans royally?

Nahhhhhhhhh.

The series goes into the endgame and I can't wait for the next issue.

HELLBLAZER #249 - John finds out that he's been getting his strings pulled and who has been behind not only his recent troubles but most of his problems throughout life. It's somewhat ironic that the revelation presented here may annoy some old-school Hellblazer fans but they are likely to be the only ones to get what is going on anyway. Personally, I have no problem with the idea and at the very least, it isn't quite as continuity breaking as Brian Azarello's unfortunate run on the series. And the final page is pretty much the sum total of everything you need to know about John Constantine.

RED SONJA #39 - I still don't get if Sonja is amnesic or if she's just being reborn or what. At least it will all be settled next issue. I hope.

SAVAGE TALES #10 - The Red Sonja story is the highlight, as usual. Two-parter with Sonja going on a quest with a legendary general in honor of an old friend. And a historical Hercules tale that stacks up surprisingly well with the Marvel version of the character - heroic and a womanizer, but no less noble for it.

Monday, November 17, 2008

8:03 - Oh crap... I don't know how Arthur did that. If he erased Hiro's memory using telepathy or... oh crap... have we seen The Haitian lately?

8:04 - Of course Arthur knew Sylar saved Peter. Unlike most of the cast, he isn't an idiot.

8:05 - I know this won't stick. I know that we did not just see Sylar get vaporized by Elle. They wouldn't be smart enough to do something that cool. I am starting to suspect, however, that all the theories about Elle and Sylar hooking up are getting pushed forward, in spite of all common sense and the inherent contradictions.

8:09 - And 10 to 1 Claire's eventual turn to the dark side is because Peter is pushing her away and trying to keep her innocent.

8:10 - Oh.. the fire-starter and the fear manipulator are trying to intimidate a girl who can't feel pain. Yeah, this will work REAL well.

8:11 - Granting that she did that before... damn, that was bad ass.

8:13 - *sighs* Solar flares... it's the solar flares that ignite the powers. It's lame but the fact that Mohinderance is ignoring it as being possible lets me know that MUST be the answer.

8:15 - Damn. I was hoping Daphne had quit the double-agent thing.

8:16 - Yeah. Peter leveling with Claire and her not buying it. Saw this coming.

8:18 - Peter, you'd better be saving her.

8:19 - My friend Keith just paged me to remind me that I had proposed that Arthur had the slightly more advanced version of Sylar's power... so good for me guessing that, since Arthur seems to know all about the Hunger.

Which is great... except I suggested Arthur had the advanced version of Peter's power. Which, if Arthur is suggesting Sylar needs to get in touch with his empathy to take powers without giving into The Hunger, means that Arthur, Peter and Sylar all have the same power.

Which would be cool and make a lot of sense genetically... except that means there was nothing for Peter to take except psychosis when he want to the future and was told he had to take Sylar's power in order to learn how to time-travel without screwing up the timeline.

Which means that either Arthur is lying or the writers really are making it all up as they go along. Take a wild guess which one I am betting money on?

8:23 - And... we're back to having Hiro and Ando as comic relief again. Which works really well... especially with Hiro being a true idiot man-child now.

8:25 - Kristen Bell in chains and Sylar asking to be hurt. I can hear the fanfic being written already. The way she's moaning and gasping isn't helping either.

8:33 - And yeah... Nathan is back, finally.

8:34 - Join me and we can rule the galaxy as father and son... it is your destiny!

8:35 - I don't know what I hate more - the fact that Sylar has been made into an even greater munchkin character... or the fact that Elle is going to totally crush over Sylar from now on. If you needed any proof that Jeph Loeb was the dominant force on this season, there it is. EVERY single female character has either been killed off or made emotionally dependent on a male character.

8:36 - I knew it. :)

8:37 - See, this is why Peter kicks ass and is my favorite out of all the heroes left. He doesn't need powers to do the right thing - He has heart, brains (most of the time) and knows that setting off a fireball in a methane-filled sewer is a bad idea.

8:45 - Ummmm... okay. The "confused by all of this" ice-queen is suddenly pushing for Nathan to go along with his dad because at least it's a plan, even though Nathan is quite rightly skeptical about the whole thing.

8:46 - Annnnnnd... we turn the one decent new character this season - who hasn't been killed yet - into an unlikeable power-hungry bitch. Again... Jeph Loeb influence.

Hmm... something odd I just noticed... Hiro and Ando are, for the moment, not officially on anyone's side. But the way I laid it out, the teams are set in fairly obvious antagonist pairings.

Angela/Arthur = the elder statesperson leading the team.

Peter/Sylar = the empaths... apparently

Nathan/Tracy = More a clash of wills here, but Tracy is everything Nathan used to be.

Claire/Elle = cheerleader/outcast feud. More pronounced in the comics. The tank vs. the blaster.

Matt/Knox = The cop vs. the criminal. They were supposed to have some sort of past confrontation but that got edited out of last week's episode due to time problems. Still references to it in the on-line bonus materials though.

Meredith/Fint = Fire vs. Fire. Brother vs. Sister.

That just leaves Daphne and Bennet on the good side without an opposite number. But Hiro has already declared Daphne his nemesis. And Ando has been developing into quite the Badass Normal, having enough of an idea on how Hiro's powers work to describe how they work. Nowhere near as cool as Bennet, but still...

Problem is I can't see Hiro or Ando signing on with Pinehearst given what just happened with Hiro's memory. But it ALMOST makes sense, doesn't it?

Thursday, November 13, 2008

BATMAN: CACOPHONY #1 - No surprise - this being a Kevin Smith book - there's more dialogue than action. What is surprising - at least to those who have missed his previous work with the DC Universe in Green Arrow - is that Smith's back-and-fourth dialogues actually suit The Joker very well.

The opening scene - where Deadshot and Joker talk through a glass wall as Deadshot is getting ready to kill Joker - is classic. And while some may criticize the scene for being overly talky, Smith captures the spirit of both characters perfectly and it makes perfect sense for them to be so "business-like" regarding impending death.

If it weren't impossible given when this had to have been written, you might think Smith had based his Joker on Heath Ledger's portrayal. His Joker is a true dark comedian, seeing humor where none exists, ready to do or say anything for a laugh... including references to necrophilia, prostitution and buggery. You don't think he really WANTS to have his way with Batman's corpse - but he'll sure as hell talk about it to throw people off balance.

We don't see much of Batman apart from one scene - probably the most Kevin Smith scene in the book - involving 90's throwback Mr. Zsasz. He's running out of skin to keep tally on and... well, if he weren't a maker of orphans, I'd almost feel sorry for Mr. Zsasz making the unkindest cut of all. Shalom!

GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY #14 - Fellow Arrow-Heads! Our long national nightmare is over. Judd Winick is off the book!

It's such a glorious thing, it's almost enough to make me forget that Judd Winick - as a parting shot - has destroyed Connor Hawke.

Seriously. In the span of three issues - Connor Hawke has, somehow, developed some form of selective amnesia that has literally turned him into Generic Martial Arts Guy.

Every vestige of personality that made him unique (vegetarian, Buddhist, pacifist) has been erased. He can't remember most of his past but he still remembers that Ollie abandoned him and his mother (DAMN YOU WINICK!) And he forgot how to use a bow. And - oh yeah - he has a healing factor now.

And did I mention that Dinah doesn't do a damn thing in this issue apart from look sad, hug Ollie and then talk with Ollie while pulling pin-up poses in her lingerie?

Andrew Kreisberg has his work cut out for him. Here's hoping he can salvage something from this mess.

GREEN LANTERN CORPS #30 - The plots thicken. We get our first look at the home base of the all-female, Love-empowered Violet Lantern/Star Sapphire Corps. Kyle Rayner leads the charge against the child-kidnapping Sinestro Corps member Kryb. And Guy Gardner admits to having a thing for beautiful women giving him orders. Puts a lot of his encounters with Power Girl in perspective...

FABLES #78 - As everyone in my superhero RPG campaign can tell you, that is NOT Mr. Dark.

I have no idea who he is... but Baba Yaga coming back from the dead can't be a good sign.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Back after two weeks... can this show regain the momentum it was starting to build?

8:01 - And... recap. What makes people good and evil? Hiro taking the Magical Mystery Tour and seeing the past while drugged out of his gourd.

8:02 - Apparently Mr. Petrelli absorbed a telepath at some point.

8:03 - Okay. So Meredith and Flint are relatives - and there's Thompson. Apparently that's how Meredith got caught up in the Company... but how does that put her in Odessa, in hiding, where Claire found her?

8:05 - And Elle met Sylar just after he killed for the first time and stopped him from killing himself?

8:06 - Oh hell... Twilight ads? Ick. For those of you somehow not familiar with Twilight at this point, all you need to know is that it is written for emotional 14-year-old girls and that it violates the Eddie Izzard Vampire Truism (i.e. If Sunlight Doesn't Hurt Your Vampires, Then Your Story Is Bullshit)

8:09 - Annnd they finally reconcile the "Forgive me Father For I have Sinned" graffiti that didn't jibe with what we saw in Sylar's apartment in Season One. Too bad this kinder, gentler Elle doesn't jibe with what we saw of her in Season Two.

8:10 - "Cute Meet". Hee Hee. So... wait... Sylar's power is transferring powers... or so they think? Maybe Mr. Petrelli and Sylar have the same power only refined...?

8:11 - "Pie." Hee Hee.

8:12 - So Meredith became a Company Agent, which explains a lot... to say nothing about why she might wind up in hiding later so close to Claire... tying up a lot of loose ends now.

8:14 - And the Nathan flying flashback.... we've seen this. I guess it HAS been about a full year now, hasn't it? Six Months ago... to Four Months gone... which means that most of the Season Three has taken two months. That fits.

8:15 - "Time to choose a side." Nice fit of a line.

8:16 - It just occurred to me - Hiro has NO idea who most of these people in the vision are... The Petrellis, sure. Sylar, yes. But Elle, Bennet and Meredith are totally Greek to him.

8:19 - So what could drive Mom and Dad apart? Oh, how about one trying to kill their children?

8:21 - Oooh - metallic skin! Nice.

8:22 - What I'd give to have Kristen Bell at my door offering me pie. Indeed, imagine the fortune you could make on a business that delivered nice, hot pie to you door in the hands of a perky blonde? Must investigate further.

8:25 - "Yeah, I got tackled by some invisible man..." No, it's not Claude. He was long-gone by this point. The Company MUST have some other invisible man working for them.

8:26 - Oh BOOO! So now it turns out that Bennet was indirectly responsible for pushing Sylar over the edge. One more forced sympathy point for Sylar and yet another Heel-Turn for the original show Heel as they try and switch Bennet from being the Bad Ass Normal everyone loves to being an honest to goodness Villain. Gag me.

8:28 - Am I weird? Am I the only one who likes Bennet better than Sylar and wants to see the man rocking the Horned Rimmed Glasses take down the supposedly most powerful character on the show?

8:29 - And... yeah. Turns out he was going to kill his son to protect his empire.

8:37 - Hmmm... I wonder if THAT is the train that caught on fire and derailed which Claire ran into in the first episode?

8:38 - Heh. Cool. The healer can reverse telepathic manipulation. But why is Lindermann doing this to help Angela when Mr. Petrelli is doing all this to cover his ass? Guilt? Man, what is this... give all the bad guys a moment of decency night?

8:39 - Okay, they are STILL running with the idea that Claire is 14? I thought they finally decided she was 16-17? Still, this kinda works. If you go with her being a newborn when the Company found her and almost 1 year old, she could be 15 on the verge of 16 and able to drive when her family moved to California. Yes, I know I am thinking way too hard about this.

8:40 - Okay and now Thompson - one of the more unrepentant bad guys from Season One - is letting Meredith run in a moment of weakness. Laaaaame.

8:41 - Can I call it or what? Claire in fiery train.

8:46 - So his power is BREAKING things telekinetically? Or just making things break?

8:49 - "He actually exposes the brain..." Yeah. Fascinating. Aren't you the guy who is usually gung-ho about - you know - stopping the assholes who abuse their powers?! Noah was never this much of a mindless drone before.

8:50 - And... wait, in Season One, didn't Noah outright say they had NO IDEA how Sylar was doing what he was doing and the only thing that he showed signs of having was telekinesis?

8:54 - And here is how the death got faked...

8:55 - And Elle is being uncharacteristically compassionate for a alleged diagnosed sociopath here.

8:56 - And there we go - how he wound up paralyzed and near dead.

8:57 - Wait... when did Hiro find out who Flint was?

8:58 - And - oh hell - they killed African Issac? And... how did he get there? And - oh yeah - take out the only other person with powers who might be able to stop him...

The Final Verdict: Well, they explained things well enough... but a lot of characters are WAY out of character here. And I really don't like the mystic angle that's being implied by The Eclipse somehow being involved in super-powers in a non-symbolic manner in the preview.

Between things going on Halloween and this past weekend - which was, amazingly enough NOT spent at Wizard World Texas - it was a while before I picked up my comics, much less read them.

FINAL CRISIS: RAGE OF THE RED LANTERNS- More of a Green Lantern tie-in than a Final Crisis one on the surface, this continues the events of The Sinestro Corps War. And not only do we get to see a mess of Red Lanterns, we also get a look at what appears to be The Controllers getting ready to establish the Orange Lanterns and the very first Blue Lantern. So... yeah. Not a good jump-in issue but a continuation of the greatness that we've come to expect from Geoff Johns.

FINAL CRISIS: RESIST - I should have known better than to buy a Greg Rucka book sight unseen... but I thought this was going to tie-in to the much more enjoyable Final Crisis: Submit. It's not that it's all that bad, really, but a bit of a tough plow for those of us who don't read Checkmate and are wondering when Snapper Carr became a teleporting secret agent. Still, for those Kirby fans who were afraid that Final Crisis would not feature EVERY crazy idea The King had while working at DC Comics, have no fear... by the end of the story, Mr. Terrific is leading an army of OMACs against the New Gods.

GIANT SIZE RED SONJA #2 - Lots of good, short stories here to enjoy. A character-defining quickie where Sonja is separated from the more traditional literary amazons by being paired up with a true man-hating psychopath... an illustrated version of Frank Thorne's famous "Red Sonja Stage Show" drawn by the man himself... and a classic "Red Sonja vs. Undead Wizard" story by Roy Thomas himself. The only one that falls flat is a very strange and very creepy story involving an angel falling to Earth, falling in love with Sonja and then screaming as he is dragged back up into the Heavens as he begs Sonja to come with him. Overall, a fine issue.

GRANT MORRISON'S DOCTOR WHO #2- A darn good read, even if this IS a Sixth Doctor story and the ending is in no way possibly in cannon. Second Doctor fans will want to check this out for the heroic end of Jamie. Grant Morrison fans will want to check it out because... well, it's a good read and rather easy to follow even with the inclusion of a shape-shifting penguin.

HELLBLAZER PRESENTS CHAS: THE KNOWLEDGE - Last issue of this mini-series came out this week. I finally got the rest of it shortly before this. And I really wish I hadn't have bothered. Don't get me wrong - Chas is a great supporting character. But even with a story centering around the Cabbies of London sitting on top of a secret that keeps a demon imprisoned in the roads of London and John completely out of the picture, save for the scenes showing just WHY he is out of the picture... Chas just doesn't hold the interest very well.

And the scenes at the end of this issue, where he extols the virtues of a simple life, ring somewhat true... the whole thing seems a bit tilted given that Chas is made out to be some sort of virtuous paragon because he refuses to cheat on his shrewish wife... even though All His Engines - a story which no less an expert than Neil Gaiman considers to be the quintessential Hellblazer story - showed Chas cheating on her easily and almost running off to America with the woman involved. Of course I'm picking nits, but that's rather a big one to pick given the popularity of the story and how relatively recent it is.

JACK OF FABLES #27 - You have to love any book where the living spirit of the Deus Ex Machina shows up to save the day and everyone is pissed off that he won't do more, because it would kill the story.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #26 - While the idea of an alternate-reality Justice League fighting to restore a reality that might erase them from time has been done before (Indeed, Dwayne McDuffie wrote The Once and Future Thing episode of Justice League Unlimited), this issue is a good one. Comic History Fans might get a chuckle out of "The Brown Bomber" - a character who seems to have been created as a parody of DC Comics' original idea of an African-American superhero before Tony Isabella slapped some sense into The Powers That Be and convinced them that a redneck who transformed into a super-powered Black man was a BAD IDEA. I'm a little confused as to where this leaves Animal Man (are his powers coming from Anansi now too?) but still... good read.

KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #144- The comics are good as always. The new movie column is an abomination. Seriously. Instead of the brilliant comedy and sarcastic kvetching of Noah Antwiler, we are - thanks to the whining of a few people who shouldn't be allowed to handle sharp objects - now being treated to a column that gives us gamers advice on how to "game" various geek movies for material for their role-playing games.

Because apparently there are a lot of game masters out there who have no idea rip off movies and TV Shows for game fodder who have been demanding such hot tips as "You could easily recycle some of the gangs from the movie, such as the Disco Boys, the Red Eyes or the Susies" for their comedic superhero games.

I'd protest but Jolly Blackburn and company have made it clear that they'll only listen to the hyperbolic exclamations of everyone who is willing to devote time to trolling their message boards claiming to have stopped reading the magazine rather than the people who actually buy the magazine. And I have no desire to demean myself by saying that I will no longer buy the magazine, am burning all my back issues and that I will not rest until Jim Davenport is living in a cardboard box under the freeway.

KULL #1- A new Kull the King mini-series. Soon to become a regular series? We can but hope, because this first issue - as Conan #0 did several years ago - perfectly defines Kull as a character while separating him from Robert Howard's other famous hero. Whereas Conan is a definitive man-of-action who has no problem with splitting hairs or skulls as needed, Kull is an educated warrior, trying to raise himself above his barbaric past. A must read for all fantasy fans.

RED SONJA #38 - My patience is starting to run thin with this "bold new direction", even if I am intrigued as to how they are going to end this and if/when they will return to the status quo.

SECRET SIX #3 - I'm not sure what I find more disturbing: on-the-wagon, paternally protective Bane or just-plain Ragdoll. I really wish they had found someone other than the "dear gods why has nobody killed her yet" Devin Grayson creation Tarantula to be the centerpiece of this story... but given the average mortality rate of the guest stars in this series, I figure it's only a matter of time...

SHEENA, QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE: DARK RISING #1 - The good news is that - apart from one fan-service shot while she's doing a back-flip in the middle of an action scene (unlike most rich American heiresses, Sheena DOES wear proper undergarments) - there isn't any gratuitous cheesecake artwork in THIS Jungle Girl book. The bad news is that the interior art isn't all that good. The story is as good as previous Sheen installments though, but one wishes they would find a good, steady artist and try and keep this book coming out monthly.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

A lot of hand-drawn mini-comics depicting would various super-heroes and super-villains are voting for. And hey - vindication - they agree with my reasoning for why Batman would vote for Obama. If he were real and could vote.